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UNITED    STATES     FOOD     ADMINISTRATION 


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PRUSSIAN  SYSTEM 


BY 


F.  C.  WALCOTT 


WASHINGTON,  D.C 
SEPTEMBER.   1917 


The 

PRUSSIAN    SYSTEM 

Told  by  F.  C.  Walcott  at  Conference  of  Field  Men,  Sept.  12. 

This  I  have  seen.  I  could  not  believe  it  unless  I  had  seen  it 
through  and  through.  For  several  weeks  I  lived  with  it;  I 
went  all  about  it  and  back  of  it;  inside  and  out  of  it  was 
shown  to  me — until  finally  I  came  to  realize  that  the  incredible 
was  true.  It  is  monstrus,  it  is  unthinkable,  but  it  exists.  It  is 
the  Prussian  system. 

A  year  ago  I  went  to  Poland  to  learn  its  facts  concerning  the  remnant 
of  a  people  that  had  been  decimated  by  war.  The  country  had  been 
twice  devastated.  First  the  Russian  army  swept  through  it  and  then 
the  Germans.  Along  the  roadside  from  Warsaw  to  Pinsk,  the  present 
firing  line  230  miles,  near  half  a  million  people  had  died  of  hunger  and 
cold.  The  way  was  strewn  with  their  bones  picked  clean  by  the  crows. 
With  their  usual  thrift,  the  Germans  were  collecting  the  larger  bones  to 
be  milled  into  fertilizer,  but  finger  and  toe  bones  lay  on  the  ground 
with  the  mud  covered  and  rain  soaked  clothing. 

Wicker  baskets  were  scattered  along  the  way — the  basket  in  which 
the  baby  swings  from  the  rafter  in  every  peasant  home.  Every  mile 
there  were  scores  of  them,  each  one  telling  a 'death.  I  started  to  count, 
but  after  a  little  I  had  to  give  it  up,  there  were  so  many. 

That  is  the  desolation  one  saw  along  the  great  road  from  Warsaw  to 
Pinsk,  mile  after  mile,  more  than  two  hundred  miles.  They  told  me  a 
million  people  were  made  homeless  in  six  weeks  of  the  German  drive 
in  August  and  September,  1916.  They  told  me  four  hundred  thousand 
died  on  the  way.  The  rest,  scarcely  half  alive,  got  through  with  the 
Russian  army.  Many  of  these  have  been  sent  to  Siberia;  it  is  these 
people  whom  the  Paderewski  committee  is  trying  to  relieve. 

In  the  refugee  camps,  300,000  survivors  of  the  flight  were  gathered 
by  the  Germans,  members  of  broken  families.  They  were  lodged  in 
jerr}'-built  barracks,  scarcely  water-proof,  unlighted,  unwarmed  in  the 
dead  of  winter.  Their  clothes,  where  the  buttons  were  lost,  were  sewed 
on.    There  were  no  conveniences,  they  had  not  even  been  able  to  wash 


for  weeks.  Filth  and  infection  from  vermin  were  spreading.  The\- 
were  famished,  their  daily  ration  a  cup  of  soup  and  a  piece  of  bread  as 
big  as  my  fist. 

In  Warsaw,  which  had  not  been  destroyed,  a  city  of  one  million  in- 
habitants, one  of  the  most  prosperous  cities  of  Europe  before  the  war, 
the  streets  were  lined  with  people  in  the  pangs  of  starvation.  Famished 
and  rain-soaked,  they  squatted  there,  with  their  elbows  on  their  knees 
or  leaning  against  the  buildings,  too  feeble  to  lift  a  hand  for  a  bit  of 
money  or  a  morsel  of  bread  if  one  offered  it,  perishing  of  hunger  and 
cold.  Charity  did  what  it  could.  The  rich  gave  all  that  they  had,  the 
poor  shared  their  last  crust.  Hundreds  of  thousands  were  perishing. 
Day  and  night  the  picture  is  before  my  eyes — a  people  starving,  a  nation 
dying. 


In  that  situation,  the  German  commander  issued  a  proclamation. 
Every  able-bodied  Pole  was  bidden  to  Germany  to  work.  If  any  re- 
fused, let  no  other  Pole  give  him  to  eat,  not  so  much  as  a  mouthful, 
under  penalty  of  German  military  law. 

This  is  the  choice  the  German  government  gives  to  the  conquered 
Pole,  to  the  husband  and  father  of  a  starving  family :  Leave  your  fam- 
ily to  die  or  survive  as  the  case  may  be.  Leave  your  country  which  is 
destroyed,  to  work  in  Germany  for  its  further  destruction.  If  you  are 
obstinate,  we  shall  see  that  you  surely  starve. 

Staying  with  his  folk,  he  is  doomed  and  they  are  not  saved;  the 
father  and  husband  can  do  nothing  for  them,  he  only  adds  to  their  risk 
and  suffering.  Leaving  them,  he  will  be  cut  off  from  his  family,  they 
may  never  hear  from  him  again  nor  he  from  them.  Germany  will  set 
him  to  work  that  a  German  workman  may  be  released  to  fight  against 
his  own  land  and  people.  He  shall  be  lodged  in  barracks,  behind  barbed 
wire  entanglements,  under  armed  guard.  He  shall  sleep  on  the  bare 
ground  with  a  single  thin  blanket.  He  shall  be  scantily  fed  and  his 
earnings  shall  be  taken  from  him  to  pay  for  his  food. 

That  is  the  choice  which  the  German  Government  offers  to  a  proud, 
sensitive,  high-strung  people.     Death  or  slavery. 

When  a  Pole  gave  me  that  proclamation,  I  was  boiling.  But  I  had  to 
restrain  myself.  I  was  practically  the  only  foreign  civilian  in  the  coun- 
try and  I  wanted  to  get  food  to  the  people.  That  was  what  I  was  there 
for  and  I  must  not  for  any  cause  jeopardize  the  undertaking.  I  asked 
Governor  General  Von  Beseler,  "Can  this  be  true  ?" 

"Really,  I  cannot  say,"  he  replied,  "I  have  signed  so  many  proclama- 
tions ;    ask  General  Von  Kries." 


So  I  asked  General  Von  Kries.  "General,  this  is  a  civilized  people. 
Can  this  be  true?" 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "it  is  true" — with  an  air  of  adding,  Why  not? 

I  dared  not  trust  myself  to  speak;  I  turned  to  go.  "Wait,"  he  said. 
And  he  explained  to  me  how  Germany,  ofificial  Germany,  regards  the 
state  of  subject  peoples. 


Even  now  I  find  it  hard  to  describe  in  comprehensible  terms  the  mind 
of  official  Germany,  which  dominates  and  shapes  all  German  thought 
and  action.  Yet  it  is  as  hard,  as  clear-cut,  as  real  as  any  material  thing. 
I  saw  it  in  Poland,  I  saw  the  same  thing  in  Belgium,  1  hear  of  it  in 
Serbia  and  Roumania.  For  weeks  it  was  always  before  me,  always  the 
same.  Officers  talked  freely,  frankly,  directly.  All  the  staff  officers 
have  the  same  view. 

Let  me  try  to  tell  it,  as  General  Von  Kries  told  me,  in  Poland,  in  the 
midst  of  a  dying  nation.  Germany  is  destined  to  rule  the  world,  or  at 
least  a  great  part  of  it.  The  German  people  are  so  much  human  ma- 
terial for  building  the  German  state,  other  people  do  not  count.  All  is 
for  the  glory  and  might  of  the  German  state.  The  lives  of  human  be- 
ings are  to  be  conserved  only  if  it  makes  for  the  state's  advancement, 
their  lives  are  to  be  sacrificed  if  it  is  to  the  state's  advantage.  The 
state  is  all,  the  people  are  nothing. 

Conquered  people  signify  little  in  the  German  account.  Life,  liberty, 
happiness,  human  sentiinent,  family  ties,  grace  and  generous  impulse, 
these  have  no  place  beside  the  one  concern,  the  greatness  of  the  German 
state. 

Starvation  must  excite  no  pity;  sympathy  must  not  be  allowed,  if  it 
hampers  the  main  design  of  promoting  Germany's  ends. 

'Starvation  is  here,'  said  General  Von  Kries.  'Candidly,  we  w^ould 
like  to  see  it  relieved ;  we  fear  our  soldiers  may  be  unfavorably  affected 
by  the  things  that  they  see.  But  since  it  is  here,  starvation  must  serve 
our  purpose.  So  we  set  it  to  work  for  Germany.  By  starvation  we  can 
accomplish  in  two  or  three  years  in  East  Poland  more  than  we  have  in 
West  Poland,  which  is  East  Prussia,  in  the  last  hundred  years.  With 
that  in  view,  we  propose  to  turn  this  force  to  our  advantage.' 

'This  country  is  meant  for  Germany,'  continued  the  keeper  of  starv- 
ing Poland.  'It  is  a  rich  alluvial  country  which  Germany  has  needed 
for  some  generations.  We  propose  to  remove  the  able-bodied  working 
Poles  from  this  country.  It  leaves  it  open  for  the  inflow  of  German 
working  people  as  fast  as  we  can  spare  them.  They  will  occupy  it  and 
work  it.' 


Then  with  a  cunning  smile,  'Can't  you  see  how  it  works  out  ?  By  and 
by  we  shall  give  back  freedom  to  Poland.  When  that  happens  Poland 
will  appear  automatically  as  a  German  province.' 

In  Belgium,  General  Von  Bissing  told  me  exactly  the  same  thing.  'If 
the  relief  of  Belgium  breaks  down  we  can  force  the  industrial  popula- 
tion into  Germany  through  starvation  and  colonize  other  Belgians  in 
Mesopotamia  where  we  have  planned  large  irrigation  works ;  Germans 
will  then  overrun  Belgium.  Then  when  the  war  is  over  and  freedom 
IS  given  back  to  Belgium,  it  will  be  a  German  Belgium  that  is  restored. 
Belgium  will  be  a  German  province  and  we  have  Antwerp — which  is 
what  we  are  after.' 

In  Poland,  the  able-bodied  men  are  being  removed  to  relieve  the  Ger- 
man workman  and  make  the  land  vacant  for  Germany.  In  Belgium, 
the  men  are  deported  that  the  country  may  be  a  German  colony.  In 
Serbia,  where  three-fourths  of  a  million  people  out  of  three  millions 
have  perished  miserably  in  the  last  three  years,  Germany  hardens  its 
heart,  shuts  its  eyes  to  the  suffering,  thinks  only  of  Germany's  gain. 
In  Armenia,  six  hundred  thousand  people  were  slain  in  cold  blood  by 
Kurds  and  Turks  under  the  domination  and  leadership  of  German 
officers — Germany  looking  on,  indi liferent  to  the  horror  and  woe,  intent 
only  on  seizing  the  opportunity  thus  given.  War,  famine,  pestilence — 
these  bring  to  the  German  mind  no  appeal  for  humane  effort,  only  the 
resolution  to  profit  from  them  to  the  utmost  that  the  German  state  may 
be  powerful  and  great. 

That  is  not  all.  Removing  the  men,  that  the  land  may  be  vacant 
for  German  occupation,  that  German  stock  may  replace  Belgians,  Poles, 
Servians,  Armenians,  and  now  Roumanians,  Germany  does  more. 
Women  left  captive  are  enslaved.  Germany  makes  all  manner  of  lust 
its  instrumentality. 

The  other  day  a  friend  of  mine  told  me  of  a  man  ju.st  returned  from 
Northern  France.  "I  cannot  tell  you  the  details,"  he  said,  "man  to 
man,  I  don't  want  to  repeat  what  I  heard."  Some  of  the  things  he  did 
tell — shocking  mutilation  and  moral  murder.  He  told  of  women,  by 
the  score,  in  occupied  territory  of  Northern  France,  prisoned  in  un- 
derground dungeons,  tethered  for  the  use  of  their  bodies  by  officers 
and  men. 

If  this  is  not  a  piece  of  the  Prussian  system,  it  is  the  logical  product 
of  disregard  of  the  rights  of  others. 


Such  is  the  German  mind  as  it  was  disclosed  to  me  in  several  weeks' 
contact  with  officers  of  the  staff.  Treaties  are  scraps  of  paper,  if  they 
hinder  German  aims.    Treachery  is  condoned  and  praised,  if  it  falls  in 


with  German  interest.    Men,  lands,  countries  are  German  prizes.     Pop 
ulations  are  to  be  destroyed  or  enslaved  so  Germany  may  gain.   Women 
are  Germany's  prey,  children  are  spoils  of  war.     God  gave  Germany 
the  HohenzoUern  and  together  they  are  destined  to  rule  Europe  and, 
eventually,  the  world — thus  reasons  the  Kaiser. 

Coolly,  deliberately,  officers  of  the  German  staff,  permeated  by  this 
monstrous  philosophy,  discuss  the  denationalization  of  peoples,  the  de- 
struction of  nations,  the  undoing  of  other  civilizations,  for  Germany's 
account. 

In  all  the  world  such  a  thing  has  never  been.  The  human  mind  has 
never  conceived  the  like.  Even  among  barbarians,  the  thing  would  be 
incredible.  The  mind  can  scarcely  grasp  the  fact  that  these  things  are 
proposed  and  done  by  a  modern  government  professedly  a  Christian 
government  in  the  family  of  civilized  nations. 

This  system  has  got  to  be  rooted  out.  If  it  takes  everything  in  the 
world,  if  it  takes  every  one  of  us,  this  abomination  must  be  overthrown. 
It  must  be  ended  or  the  world  is  not  worth  living  in.  No  matter  how 
long  it  takes,  no  matter  how  much  it  costs,  we  must  endure  to  the  end 
with  agonized  France,  with  imperiled  Britain,  with  shattered  Belgium, 
with  shaken  Russia. 

We  must  hope  that  Germany  will  have  a  new  birth  as  Russia  is  being 
reborn.  We  must  pray,  as  we  fight  against  the  evil  that  is  in  Germany, 
that  the  good  which  is  in  Germany  may  somehow  prevail.  We  must 
trust  that  in  the  end  a  Germany  really  great  with  the  strength  of  a  won- 
derful race  may  find  its  place  as  one  of  the  brotherhood  of  nations  in 
the  new  world  that  is  to  be. 

The  responsibility  of  success  or  failure  rests  now  upon  our  shoulders ; 
the  eyes  of  the  world  are  anxiously  watching  us.  Are  we  going  to  be 
able  to  rise  to  the  emergency,  throw  off  our  inefficiency,  and  prove  that 
Democracy  is  safe  for  the  world? 

September  13,  1917. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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